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I agree with Bill. Interesting topic. My professor said that one student he had with perfect pitch was interesting to teach. He said it was fun to mess around with the student, I think he said it was a she. It had to do with site reading and him playing the piano... I think intentionally wrong.. and he like to see it register on her face, every slightly off note, even in sophisticated pieces. I think I am botching up the story.
It has been a relief to me to finally be able to hear the wrong notes when I play. I was playing Star Spangled Banner this week and I could hear the places after all this time where I was not reaching for the right note completely... Slowly but surely...
I am also able to pick a song and play a good couple of sentences in a short period of time. If I know the song pretty well... This has been a relief....since I can usually go to the notes now from ear, usually in five minutes or so, I actually think it is fun.
I still prefer to use sheet to read and play with, but it this ear thing that is opening up it also a relief and fun.
Cheers.
Vibrato Desperato.... Desperately seeking vibrato
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coolpinkone said
I agree with Bill. Interesting topic. My professor said that one student he had with perfect pitch was interesting to teach. He said it was fun to mess around with the student, I think he said it was a she. It had to do with site reading and him playing the piano... I think intentionally wrong.. and he like to see it register on her face, every slightly off note, even in sophisticated pieces. I think I am botching up the story.It has been a relief to me to finally be able to hear the wrong notes when I play. I was playing Star Spangled Banner this week and I could hear the places after all this time where I was not reaching for the right note completely... Slowly but surely...
I am also able to pick a song and play a good couple of sentences in a short period of time. If I know the song pretty well... This has been a relief....since I can usually go to the notes now from ear, usually in five minutes or so, I actually think it is fun.
I still prefer to use sheet to read and play with, but it this ear thing that is opening up it also a relief and fun.
Cheers.
Well, yeah. One of the biggest assets that perfect pitch gives you is to be able to play some songs just by listening to them. Sheet music, not usually needed. I do that all the time with any instrument that I know and have entertained a lot of my friends doing so.
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I've only ever met one person who had perfect pitch. He wasn't a musician, though.
And I've only ever met one person who was 100% tone-deaf. He wasn't a musician either, lol.
I'm not sure what relative pitch is. I can tell simple intervals, but I'd need thinking time and maybe a pencil and paper for difficult intervals. Are there people who can tell you any interval without having to think about it?
There are people who can hear the equal temperament on a piano. I had a music teacher who swore that if you played a piece in C# minor and then played it in D minor he could tell by the different sonorities, and he wasn't the only one I've heard of. (and I post this with a smile, having read the disagreement Pierre had with another forum member on the subject of ET where I agreed with Pierre)
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
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Interesting there are some study's that suggest by age 50 the folks with perfect pitch are one half step off and by age 60 it's gone where relative pitch was still in tact.
Mark
Master the Frog and you have mastered the bow.
Albert Sammons
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That's interesting @Mark. Personally, I was certainly never aware of having "perfect pitch", but vocally, in a series of tests, I would get "quite close" to certain (properly tuned) open strings on guitar. I haven't tried that little test in many years though.
My relative pitch has been pretty good, and I'm pretty much instantly aware of those "slightly misplaced fingerings" on the fretless instruments (and often try to catch it quickly by rolling the finger a tad).
But really, what your comment brought to mind was something I had read some time back about the physical perception of pitch and how it (arguably) can vary with localized sound intensity at an individual level.
If I recall correctly it is suggested that, at high volumes under the ear, if "listening" you will perceive pitches as being somewhat flat (I *think* that was the way it suggested) at high acoustic pressure levels.
The corollary to this is that when playing (fretless) and the localized sound level is quite high, the player may "correct" to his perceived pitch (player will perceive it as flat (although it may have been on-pitch) and quickly correct - going a tad sharp - but now hearing it as on-pitch... Then, *IF* this correction is made by the player, then the listener - at a distance - will perceive it as sharp.
I really have no subjective proof of this one way or the other, and as I say, it could be the other way round (high intensity sound - pitch sounds sharp, not flat) - no matter - it was just a point of interest that came to mind...
Perhaps people who play in a high-sound-level environment - perhaps in pubs, clubs, orchestras may have comments to make or correct/improve my understanding of this phenomenon !
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh - 
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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I personally do not have perfect pitch I have relative pitch, and I'm working on pitch memory, trying to memorize 440 hz A so I can tune with out a tuner/tone generator. I'm in Houston at the moment, when I get home I will try to link a video on this subject I found interesting.
Mark
Master the Frog and you have mastered the bow.
Albert Sammons
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Looking forward to that ! Thanks Mark !
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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I don't have perfect pitch. I only know one person with true perfect pitch, and she is a violist, but she considers perfect pitch a handicap because she finds it extremely difficult to play in any group that uses an A other than 440.
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Interesting video and youtube channel.
Mark
Master the Frog and you have mastered the bow.
Albert Sammons
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That is SO weird.... ( I meant that in a good way.... change "weird" to "strange" )
Also watched the "Story behind Dylan...." which initially felt a little bit disturbing ( i.e. it felt a bit like an "experiment" by high-intensity exposure to music - but after spending some time reading the comments I can see / understand what his father was doing - and he wasn't exclusively forcing the kid down that path )
It appears that now (some 5 or 6 years on) as a young teenager, he's more interested in math and science. All the same, it must be awesome to have that ability to call upon at any time, to make music and improvise whenever you just feel like it...
I seriously recommend not copying my mistakes. D'oh -
Please make your own, different mistakes, and help us all learn :-)
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I've been wanting to experiment with this for a few years.
Is it just about memory? The one person I knew with perfect pitch was not a musician, but there was a piano in their conservatory. Where else could he have got the idea of pitch from? You don't get a newborn baby and sing a note and say what's that? They won't say "G4", they'll say, "what are you on, and where's the milk?"
Does a person with pp have an eidetic pitch memory? Does a virtuoso have eidetic muscle memory?
Can a person without pp train their memory to remember pitch in the same way that they can memorise a poem or a piece of music if they go over it enough times?
10 seconds ago I had a go at singing from memory the notes on my uke, and I got it spot on, but sometimes I can be a 4th or a 5th out! But practice takes time, and my time is fully allocated to other things (lol)
Andrew
Verified human - the ignominy!
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There is a difference between perfect pitch and long-term pitch memorization.
Relative pitch is when you know all notes relative to a certain pitch and not necessarily in perfect intonation, but perfect intervals.
I think anyone can learn to recognize a pitch. One can start with playing or hearing a note and singing it after 10 seconds. Then increase to 30 seconds..... Keep increasing till you can remember the pitch the next day. It could be a very long and slow process but eventually, you will learn to recognize pitches.
I always know how to tune a violin without listening to any guide notes but it's a bit on the high side. It just feels better with a 443 A to me. 
"The richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least."
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